By Ashish Agarwal, President – Solar and Storage, BluPine Energy
During the past decade, the country’s solar power journey largely focused on capacity expansion. However, in recent years, the emphasis has slowly shifted to power reliability, grid integration and seamless delivery. Backed by robust policy support and improving economics, the next growth phase offers an ideal opportunity to boost reliability, efficiency and performance. The growing integration of grid modernisation, energy storage and digital technology is steadily transforming solar power into a more stable, predictable and transmissible form of electricity.
Meanwhile, even as capacity additions accelerate, the emphasis is shifting towards ensuring power stability and security. This transition highlights a maturing market moving from scale to optimisation of project value. Considering their 71 per cent contribution to India’s overall utility-level solar installations, states such as Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are leading the way.
Ongoing concerns around land acquisition and grid infrastructure
However, promoting these goals is easier said than done since various constraints arise on the pathway to power security. It needs no reiteration that land acquisition constitutes one of the biggest barriers because utility-level solar projects need about 5 acres of land per MW. In a country where farming is the primary occupation, acquiring land can be a daunting task, to say the least. In the case of rooftop solar, around 300 square feet of shadow-free space is required to generate 3 kW, which is difficult to find in most urban houses or apartments. Consequently, land acquisition and allied implementation barriers led to the 40 GW rooftop solar capacity target being pushed back from 2022 to 2026.
Solar power adoption is also hindered by low awareness and misperceptions about cost, installation and maintenance issues. Another challenge emerges from inadequate legacy grid infrastructure, which was primarily designed for centralised thermal power. As a result, it cannot manage intermittent, decentralised solar energy. Gaps in domestic manufacturing are another huge hurdle since the country relies heavily on imported solar modules and core components procured largely from China. This has engendered vulnerability to supply chain disruptions.
Agrivoltaics, floating solar and storage emerge as solutions
Given this scenario, innovative models are required to optimise land use by integrating solar power with agricultural activities. Besides optimising land use, this approach can ensure food security while simultaneously producing clean energy. Solar panels can also be deployed on waterbodies such as the 100 MW floating solar project at Ramagundam, Telangana, or the 92 MW Kayamkulam floating solar plant in Kerala. This innovative approach can help alleviate land acquisition problems, curb evaporation and promote water conservation.
Similarly, energy storage and grid modernisation schemes address storage and infrastructure problems. In May 2021, the Ministry of Heavy Industries had approved a production-linked incentive scheme under the National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell Battery Storage to build 50 GWh of indigenous advanced chemistry cell manufacturing capacity. The scheme promotes cost-effective, scalable storage solutions to manage solar power intermittency.
India’s secure solar power future is contingent on using an integrated model that addresses infrastructural, economic, environmental and governance issues. A cohesive approach will help the nation accelerate its clean energy transition while ensuring a reliable source of sustained solar power. The heartening news is that India’s solar energy installed capacity reached 132.85 GW in November 2025, representing a rise of more than 41 per cent from 94.17 GW in November 2024. As of March 2026, it has reached 150.26 GW.
Oil crisis to boost uptake of electric cooking and rooftop solar
This is good news indeed, as the importance of expanding renewable energy sources, particularly solar, has grown in the backdrop of ongoing conflicts in West Asia. With disruptions having roiled the oil and energy markets, consumers in India and across the world have been scrambling to find alternative sources of safe, secure and reliable electricity. Domestic consumers are looking for alternatives to liquefied petroleum gas cylinders, including electric cooking sources such as infrared induction cooktops, electric kettles, electric toasters and electric cookers.
Given the current scenario, it will not be surprising if reports soon indicate increasing enquiries for rooftop solar panels from individuals and institutions that seek greater energy independence.
